The Portland daily press., 1887-11-19

| much to Lady Pinkerton's disgust, strong
| misery tendencies.
| My next care was to make a rough draw
| ing of the missing jewels from Lady Pinker-
| tons description. My sketch was not by
| any means so accurate as / could have
| wished, as her ladyship's description was
rather vague, and she seemed to have no
idea of drawing. then arranged with the
local police that they should keep Alice
| Wright under an informal surveillance, and
returned to London.
Not many days after my return to town
| was informed by the Edinburgh police that
| they believed they had succeeded in tracing
| the young man who had travelled with Alice
Wright on the night of therobbery, He was
staying at one of the hotels in the city, and
called himself Charles Payne. The telegram
| added that Payne held himself up to be a
medical student and that he seemed on the
point of returning to London. replied
| that a strict watch must be kept on his
| movements, and shortly afterward ! was told
| that he might be expected to arrive in Lon
| don by certain train. Of course he was
| met upon his arrival by one of my men, who
| followed him to his lodgings. then tee-
| graphed Lady Pinkerton to send her maid
| up to town in the company of policeman
| in plain clothes This was done, and had
| no difficulty in arranging that Miss Wright
| and should meet Charles Payne one morn
ing as he left his rooms.
We passed close to him, and watched his
face as we met. had told the girl to bow
lightly as he went by. She did so, and he
ased his hat with slight smile, glancing
ia Of
his identity, turned, touched him on the
arm, told him was a detective officer and
asked him to so back with me to his rooms.
| He did so at once, and admitted readily that
he had travelled to Edinburgh the night in
| question, and that from York to Newcastle
he and Alice Wright had been alone in the
carriage; but he Indignantly denied all
| knowledge of the diamonds. He gave me
numerous references, and consented that
policeman should wait with him in
his room till the references could be verified
| A little shaken in my opinion by his readi-
ness to submit to this arrangement, called
on the gentlemen he had named, and found
that they all knew Charles Payne and had
the highest opinion of his integrity. One or
two of them, indeed, offered to become bail
for him to any extent. This put totally
different complexion upon matters. Payne
was certainly not professional thief, and
only professional thief-and a very clever
one, too-could have operated upon. Alice
| Wright and the jewel case in the way which
my theory supposed he had done. There
was really no evidence against the yong man,
and gave up the idea of placing him under
arrest
Six weeks passed. bringing no tidings of
the stolen property, and had begun to look
upon the case as one of my failures Lady
| Pinkerton had returned to town, and when
reported to her my inability to recover her
property she seemed to have become resigned
| to her loss.
| happened one morning shortly after this
| to be In the shop of one of those West End
| jewellers who are in reality ''swell pawn
brokers'" when the jeweler said to me-:
by the way, pair of earrings were
| offered to me the other day which l might
have fancied were part of Lady Pinkerton's
set half thought of OBTAINING the lady
and sending for you"
'And why didn't your l interrupted
almost angriy.
Because the things were not diamonds at
all-they were only paste.
paste! Then they can't have been Lady
Pinkerton's-but are you quite sure?"
Perfectly sure. They were paste, but
very good imitation
| pondered the matter for u moment
Could the thief have taken out the stones,
replaced them by imitation brillants, and
then tried to pass of the false stones as real
ones by means of the setting? Possibly;
but on the other hand the setting was the
very thing which any thief must have known
might lead to his detection.
''Who offered you the trinkets?'' | asked.
IAN elderly woman-I think she was a
French woman" was the answer.
''Can you give me drawing of one of
them?"
The jeweller took out a pencil and sheet
of paper, and in few minutes handed me a
sketch of an earring, which certainly bore
resemblance to the drawing | had made from
Lady Pinkerton's description of her earrings
left the shop with the two sketches in my
hand, feeling somewhat puzzled. On the |
whole | thought it was worth while to call
on Lady Pinkerton, and show her the draw
ing which the jeweller had made.
found her ladyship at breakfast in her
boudour, attended by her maid. In a few
words explained the object of my visit, and
then handed her the jewellers sketch, ask
ing her If she recognized it. The lady took
it with the tips of her fingers, and looked at
it with supercilious all; but could see
that in spite of her affectation of nonchalance,
she was deeply interested in what l had said.
"No," she said with careless air, as she
laid the sheet of paper on the table. There
is a resemblance in shape but that is moth
ing If the earrings were paste, as you say,
they cannot be mine; my diamonds were not
paste"
As Lady Pinkerton was speaking, her
maid, Alice Wright, approached the table
with cream jug in her hand, and as she did
so she glanced at the drawing which lay
directly under her eyes. A look of surprise
came over the girls face, and She seemed to
be ON the point of saying something. Sh
turned away, however, without speaking,
q at sign from her mistress quietly left
the room. | drew the conclusion. as GER
tainly as if the girl had spoken, that, in her
opinion, the drawing made by the jeweller
nearly resembled, at least, one of the missing |
trinkcts, and | also suspected that her mis-
tress was DESTROYS that the girl should keep
her opinion to herself. 1t seemed unneces-
sary to me at the time to pursue the subject
further. After all, there was nothing sur
prising in Lady Pinkerton's unwillingness
&c allow it to be supposed that her famous
diamonds had been nothing but paste after |
all.
Next day, however, j thought had better |
see the girl and question her, and / was on |
the point of setting out for Deyonshire |
House Terrace, where Lord Pinkerton lived, |
when l received telegram from the officer |
who had been instructed to keep watch on |
Alice Wright's movements. "Alice Wright |
seems to be leaving for the country. Shall |
follow herr" said the telegram. Certainly, |
and wire address when you reach her desti- |
nation replied.
That evening had the address, quiet |
village in one of the Midland counties, and |
next morning / surprised Miss Wright by |
presenting myself before her.
"What do you want with me?" she asked |
with an anxious expression. | know moth |
inn ohouf fha diamonds dou,r ;ndaad